HF: The first tunnel connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon opened for traffic on the 2nd August 1972. However, and I think remarkably, there were at least two proposals to construct a bridge across the harbour, the first more than 70 years before the road tunnel. Tymon Mellor’s article, The Development of the Hong Kong Road Network 1841 to 1940 – […]
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Our posted article, Joy Fat Construction – Factory Building Pioneer contains this information: After the War, Joy Fat Hong was involved in import/export of valuable food products such as ginseng and shark fin and over time built up a large business shipping Japanese red ginseng to markets such as Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It was also involved in the lucrative […]
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York Lo: United Rubber Works (聯合膠廠) United Rubber Works ad in 1949 (HK Scouting Gazette, 1949) United Rubber Works was one of the five biggest rubber product manufacturers in HK in the late 1940s with ties to several figures discussed earlier in different articles. Formed in 1946 (although the firm was not incorporated until March 1947) with HK$1 million in […]
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HF: Our article, 1924 Report on the Commerial Development of the Port of Hong Kong, begins by mentioning the visit of Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice to Hong Kong in 1920. Fitzmaurice, as a partner in a firm of Consulting Engineers, had been invited to offer advice on general improvements to Hong Kong’s harbour and also specific areas within that subject. The […]
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Stephen Davies: My favourite early, short-lived, Hong Kong shipyard is the German Ulderup and Schlüter, which only seems to have operated from c.1900-1914. It had the actual shipyard in Shamshuipo and an office at 21 Connaught Rd, Central. They became the local agents for the Swedish Bolinder marine diesels (Bolinder Rohölmotoren – strictly semi-diesels) – two strokes that for the first […]
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HF: Universal Dockyard Ltd is situated at 44 Ko Fai Road which is the extreme NW corner of the Yau Tong reclamation. (It appears to have been also known as Tai Yuen Shipyards though I can find nothing about this company. Can anyone supply any information about it?) I have found out almost nothing about the company. Judging by these […]
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York Lo: Fung Yuen-hon (馮元侃) and Wai Yuen Cheong (惠元昌) Left: Fung Yuen-hon in front of the Wai Yuen Cheong sign (HKET); Right: Shaolin Temple brand medicine label – address listed as 42A Bonham Strand West and stating that pregnant ladies should avoid consuming. In 2014, the 96 years old Fung Yuen-hon (馮元侃) decided to shut down Wai Yuen Cheong, the […]
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HF: Indigo was grown at several places in the NT including Tai Mo Shan and Ma On Shan up until the end of WW1 when it was replaced by commercial dyes. James Hayes wrote a RASHKB 1968 article about the weaving of locally grown hemp thread into cloth during the annual visits of mostly male Hakka weavers. This was then […]
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Tymon Mellor: The first water supply and distribution network for Kowloon commenced operations on the 24th December 1895. The source of the water was from a series of wells, providing a daily capacity of 232,000 gallons and supporting a population of 13,200. By 1898, the demand for water was out-stripping supply; a new water source was required along with additional […]
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HF: The Indhhk article linked below suggests some confusion about three companies that had similiar sounding names during WW2 and the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. They were: a) Hong Kong Oxygen b) Hongkong Oxygen & Carbide c) Far East Oxygen & Acetylene Time to attempt to separate them starting with Hongkong Oxygen & Carbide. Elizabeth Ride has sent these […]
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